Spring cleaning could mean great PC deals

PC sales were actually fairly strong among consumers in the first quarter, but Intel's profits fell 38 percent compared with the previous year. The chipmaker suggested that PC growth won't be as strong as it had hoped during the rest of the year, since its customers still have a backlog of inventory to work through.

Other component makers, such as flat-panel display and hard drive manufacturers, are pointing to a similar softness, said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. With inventory building at both Intel and its PC partners, price cuts are almost inevitable, he said. And Advanced Micro Devices might have to follow suit to keep its recent market share gains going, Kay said.